When your nemesis is suave, smooth and sexy and drives a custom-built Aston Martin DB10 festooned with weapons and gadgets, how can the modern day super-villain cut a suitable dash on the road?
Well, for the likes of Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his cohorts of the Special Executive For Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion (SPECTRE) the short and easy solution is to go to their local Jaguar Land Rover dealer and hammer out a good group lease deal. Let's face it, it's probably easier to get a decent PCP rate if you can threaten the salesperson with annihilation by giant space laser…
So, while Daniel Craig's James Bond will be driving a specially-made Aston Martin in Spectre, the 24th 007 film which is due for release in November of this year, his evil opposite numbers will be driving Range Rovers, Defenders and, uniquely, a Jaguar CX-75.
The CX-75 is Jaguar's stillborn electric supercar, proposed as a rival to the hybrid likes of the McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari. Canned because of spiralling development costs, the CX-75 has lived on as a mobile test-bed for future technology and now will feature in a tyre-shredding car chase through the streets of Rome in the new Bond movie. It seems that the complex and unproven electric hybrid setup will be junked for filming, and power will come from Jaguar's more traditional 550hp supercharged V8 petrol, but movie magic will presumably replace the whooshing electric noises for the big screen.
Other scenes, set amidst the snowy peaks of the Austrian alps, will feature the Range Rover Sport SVR (also packing the 550hp V8) and some specially-made Defenders – the Bigfoots, which feature huge 37" wheels and lifted suspension for tackling serious off-road terrain. Or presumably threatening to squish Mr Bond under their massive treads.
Managing Director of Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations, John Edwards, said: “This is an exciting partnership for Jaguar Land Rover and an opportunity to demonstrate the fantastic capabilities of the Special Operations team.’’
Jaguar and Land Rover products have previously been features in Skyfall, Quantum Of Solace and Casino Royale. Supplying the bad guys' cars sticks closely to Jaguar's Good To Be Bad ad campaign which has so far featured Sir Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Strong and Nicholas Hoult sending up their evil big-screen personas.
